JAMES I OF ENGLAND 225
should be no doubt about his attitude; he reiter-
ated the claim that the Crown of Great Britain
was " Imperial," that is, subject to no other lay
state, and he concluded that it was not subject
to any external moral authority either.
It is interesting to note that James was, at
one moment of his reign, in active negotiation
with Rome (or rather with the agents of Rome)
to see whether some formula could not be drawn
up which would get over the difficulty of the
Oath of Allegiance. If some set of words could
be found which would satisfy the abstract Papal
claim to depose a monarch by relieving his
subjects of their Oath of Allegiance, some form
of words making quite clear that acceptation
by all subjects—clerical and lay, of the full
sovereignty of the monarchy and its freedom
from any kind of superior international power,
he would have been content. No such formula
was found; but it is significant that he should
have made such efforts to discover one after his
violently open break with Rome.
Most people think of James I as a man steeped
in Calvinism, because he had been brought up
under the rules of the Scottish Kirk. This is
a great error. He had indeed been brought up
in the main under the rules of the Scottish Kirk,
but during the earlier years of life, when character